Thursday, August 7, 2014

American Politics

Somebody wondered why conservatism in the United States of America isn't more popular. My two cents appear below.The
modern "conservative" party in the US has become a sham. They make
some noises that people like me want to hear, admittedly, but when the
rubber meets the road they are all in the same boat as people making the
opposite noises (their political "opponents"). Conservative politics
in the USA lately, and perhaps not so lately, seems largely about making
the government a matter of us doing our business with federal money and
muscle and then blaming any untoward consequences on the opposition.
How does the opposition respond? With the same tactics, obviously,
because they work--if your goal is to win elections (rather than do
anything constructive with life, personal and collective).

Winning
elections is a piss-poor goal, it seems to me, particularly when the
price for victory is moral integrity. If you have to be the kind of
no-account bum that typically represents conservative politics in the
Senate or White House to get elected and "win," then we need more
losers. We need somebody to stop playing the stupid game and just do
good work, for its own sake. Eat your own mistakes. Don't pass the buck to
"liberals" or "progressives" or "gay people" or some such nonsense.
Make your own communities, using your own values, without playing the
sanctimonious victim and trying to beat up people who don't agree with
you. Some people don't want your values. Fine. You don't have to
marry them. You don't have to punish them. You don't have to look for
excuses to make everything good in your life depend on them. Stop doing
that. That is the coward's way--and the way of conservative American
politics since I came of age, it seems.

When
I was 18 years old, I registered to vote as a Republican, recognizing
that I was definitely not a Democrat. Then, I noticed what Republicans
were doing with the country--to win elections. I noticed how they
wanted to have their cake and eat it too, pretending that their mistakes
belonged to the other side (which is certainly not blameless, I know).
I noticed, and I said, "This is not how I do things. This crap does
not represent me, and come hell or high water, I am not going to vote
for it any more. I don't care if the economy tanks and the country dies: at least I won't be the one pulling the trigger." I left the
GOP, registering as an independent, and I am probably not coming back
(certainly not as long as these weak-ass "blame the liberals for
everything!" tactics continue to be the only politics of substance that
"conservatives" offer). I am under no delusions that there are armies
of people just like me waiting in the wings to transform the political
landscape. I have no large-scale agenda for dominating people who don't
like my life or want it for themselves. My approach is to avoid
imposing on such people as much as possible, and ask in return that they
avoid me in similar fashion. Most of them do, until they get elected
and buy into the idea that governments own citizens the way
farmers own cattle.

When
"conservatives" start treating me like a human being, maybe I will
identify as one of the gang, again. But I am not holding my breath.
All I feel from both major political parties right now is deep
indifference (when they try to save me without caring what I might want
or need or think) and occasional contempt (when they notice that I do
have opinions about justice, or integrity, or education, or anything
that matters to them). I'm done playing the game in which I exist
merely as a pawn. I don't play in this game: I get played--by the same
punks, "conservative" and not, pretending to represent me so that I will
legitimize their attempt to consolidate and extend power over this
wreck we call the state of the union. I am not united, folks. I want
no part of that. I am also not violent or revolutionary (in the
traditional sense): I want no part of political secession (e.g. the
recent Arab Spring, which seems like a disaster to me),
preferring to leave politics alone as much as possible to work on other
ways of meeting my needs for food, shelter, friends, a life with good
society. If you are willing to ignore politics and live with integrity
in communities where people value you as a human being, good things can
still happen--even in this sham Union, even with all the vultures pretending
to represent you as they pick over your carcass every time the
legislature sits, the court convenes, or the executive signs another
order.

I
am conservative when it comes to keeping things that work for me,
things that I see contributing on balance more good than evil to the
communities where I am a meaningful player. I am not conservative when
it comes to supporting the sham that is the GOP.

1 comment:

A side-note that I did not work into the rant above that is worth preserving: The problem with conservatism is that what signals health at one point will later signal disease. When the vultures start circling, it is time to change your regimen (or prepare to be eaten).